Brigham Young offered to use his authority as head of the church to assist the government during the original 1859 investigation.
This was on top of his giving orders that the local militia was to leave everyone alone, an order that sadly arrived several days too late. [/quote
Everyone knows that BY was a tyrant. He ruled with a fist of iron. No one would have done anything w/o BY approval. There are two thoughts on why this 'massacre' of innocent Americans were brutally murdered by the Mormons.
1. They (Baker-Fancher Party) had a net value of about $300,000 worth of stuff. The Mormonds wanted it.
2. Vengeance for the death of LDS apostle Parley Parker Pratt. I am convinced this was the driving cause.
Proof, please. You see, I have already shown you to be less than honest (LDS god lives on Kolob) so I need facts, not mere words. Thanks.
Actually, you didn't. I gave 3 more references to a GLOBE (not Heaven) being the place where the LDS god resides. If it is hinted at it is one thing. But for the Mormon church to keep saying (and printing it) God lives on a 'globe' is another story altogether- and they did. So he does. Remember, Mormon doctrine isn't what you say it is or what I say it is. It is what the Mormon church taught it is, then printed it in their books and published it for the world to see. I gave the quotes and references from LDS sources to back up the globe (Kolob) as his residence. Read them then look them up. Keep me honest.
If it's what I'm thinking of, then the prophecy was conditional upon Joseph Smith being alive to see it happen... something that even Joseph Smith himself doubted would happen.
That isn't what was prophesied. The LDS church taught for 100 years that it was 'going back to Jackson'. There weren't any requisites involved. I can post a dozen or more (maybe 2 dozen) LDS quotes where the church says it. Then they started giving excuses once it was clear they were never going back. The Mormon church doesn't even own the land anymore- there's been two court cases on the land ownership issue, too.
Wasn't it the JS/LDS church who taught that men live on the moon (BY taught they live on the moon and the sun)?
Nope.
What most critics of the church don't understand is that at one point in time, newspapers all over America had fallen for a hoax. The hoax stated that a respected astronomer had found life on the moon, with the description matching what JS supposedly said.
Yep, actually. The newspapers and all of that don't matter. JS taught it as being true and he claimed he was a prophet of God's speaking for God. He never claimed it was a personal or national 'thought' or belief. But he did teach it. BY commented (BY is only one a few) that JS taught it then he went on to say 'people live on the sun'. Where did he get such a notion? From his god, perhaps? Idk. Why would he even say something like that? If you want references, ask. I have to look them up. But I believe they are in the Standard Works, Journal of Discourses (JoD) and BY's 'Discourses of BY' (DBY). They may be in one or two other books as well.
Thus, even if JS made the claim, he could well have been merely repeating what he'd read in the newspaper somewhere.
Making excuses for JS 'teachings' now?
1. Wasn't it the LDS who taught everyone on earth would look at JS as a GOD?
2. Wasn't it the LDS who said Jesus was married "to Mary, Martha and others" and they had children by him yet no one can produce a single child of Jesus?
3. Wasn't it the LDS who taught the original first 12 LDS apostles are still alive and will be until Jesus returns?
1. JoD 5:88- You call us fools; but the day will be, gentlemen and ladies, whether you belong to this Church or not, when you will prize brother JS as the Prophet of the Living God, and look upon him as a God. [Here is another one in that line of thinking (sorry for all the caps but they are in my file and meant as emphasis)- JoD 7:289-
"JS holds the keys of this last dispensation, and is now engaged behind the veil in the great work of the last days. I can tell our beloved brother Christians (sarcasm never fully works, boys. Does show what LDS really think of Christians, though), who have slain the Prophets and butchered and otherwise caused the death of thousands of Latter-day Saints, the priests who have thanked God in their prayers and thanksgiving from the pulpit that we have been plundered, driven, and slain, and the deacons under the pulpit, and their brethen and sisters in their closets, who have thanked God, thinking that the Latter-day Saints were 'wasted away', SOMETHING THAT NO DOUBT WILL MORTIFY THEM-SOMETHING THAT, TO SAY THE LEAST, IS A MATTER OF DEEP REGRET TO THEM-
NAMELY,
THAT NO MAN OR WOMAN IN THIS DISPENSATION WILL EVER ENETER INTO THE CELESTIAL KINGDOM OF GOD WITHOUT THE "CONSENT" OF JOSEPH SMITH."
"From the day that the Priesthood was taken from the earth to the 'winding-up scene'* of all things, EVERY MAN OR WOMAN "MUST" HAVE THE CERTIFICATE OF JOSEPH SMITH, JUNIOR, AS A "PASSPORT" TO THEIR "ENTRANCE WHERE GOD AND CHRIST ARE- I WITH YOU AND YOU WITH ME. I CANNOT GO THERE WITHOUT HIS "CONSENT".
"He holds the of that kingdom for the last dispensation-THE KEYS TO 'RULE' IN 'THE SPIRIT-WORLD'; ANF HE RULES THERE TRIUMPHANTLY, FOR HE 'GAINED FULL POWER' and a glorious victory over the power of satan while he was yet in the flesh, and was a martyr to his religion and to the name of Christ, which gives him a most perfect victory in the spirit-world."
"HE REIGNS THERE AS SUPREME A BEING IN HIS SPHERE, CAPACITY, AND CALLING, AS GOD DOES IN HEAVEN."
"Many will exclaim- "Oh, that is very disagreeable! It is preposterous! We cannot bear the thought!"
BUT IT IS TRUE." (JoD 7:289)
And,
“How are you going to get your resurrection? You will get it by the President of resurrection, and that is Joseph Smith, Jun. Hear it all ye ends of the earth; if you ever enter into the kingdom of God it is because Joseph Smith let you go there. This will apply to Jews and Gentiles, to the bond, and the free; to friends and foes; no man or woman in this generation will get a resurrection and be crowned without Joseph Smith saying so. The man who was martyred in Carthage Jail, State of Illinois, holds the keys of life and death to this dispensation…” (Quoted from “The Essential Brigham Young,” Eugene E. Campbell, p. 99, emphasis added).
Because I quoted the entire JoD 9 passage (for context) I will reply to the other two later.
